USA - SEMI (www.semi.org) and the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (www.uspvmc.org) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance their cooperation in the areas of standards and roadmap activities for the solar thin film industry.

SEMI, a global industry association and standards development organization (SDO), serves the manufacturing supply chain for the micro and nano-electronics industries, including photovoltaics (PV), through consensus-based, collaborative activities such as PV manufacturing standards through the SEMI International Standards program, as well as technology roadmap development through the International Technology Roadmap for PV (ITRPV).

PVMC, a national industry-led consortium headquartered in New York State at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s (CNSE) Albany NanoTech Complex, is a partnership between SEMATECH and CNSE. PVMC was created as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot initiative, which is designed to reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent over the next decade, and brings together the solar community — including industry, academia, and government — to accelerate the development, commercialization and manufacturing of next-generation solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

Through PVMC, CNSE and SEMATECH are spearheading a unique research, development, and commercialization partnership in which industry, academia and government are working together to drive new advances in next-generation solar cell technologies, beginning with copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film PV manufacturing solutions — increasing performance while driving down the cost and risk of bringing them to the marketplace.

"By joining forces with PVMC and by leveraging lessons learned from SEMI’s ITRPV roadmap and PV standards activity, we intend to create synergies along the PV thin film manufacturing supply chain,enabling cost reductions and efficiency gains that will benefit the entire global solar industry," said Bettina Weiss, vice president, business development, SEMI.

"In accordance with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s innovative green energy initiatives, including the NY-SUN and Energy Superhighway programs, PVMC is delighted to partner with SEMI to drive the development of standards and roadmaps that will guide next-generation PV research and advanced manufacturing," said Dr. Pradeep Haldar, PVMC chief operating and technical officer and CNSE vice president for Clean Energy Programs. "This collaboration further highlights the ability of public-private partnerships to enable leading-edge technologies while supporting the critical needs of industry."

"A critical objective of PVMC is to build on earlier PV roadmap initiatives and support cooperative standards activities for thin film PV manufacturing and applications," said Joe Hudgins, senior VP of business development and strategic alliances, PVMC. "This partnership demonstrates PVMC’s and SEMI’s strong commitment to coalesce industry direction by tackling top industry concerns on the technical barriers for advanced solar PV-related manufacturing processes and BOS (balance of systems) applications and product certifications."